Blog Renewal

Fresh content on Jeff Samsel Fishing is farther past due than it has been in this history of this blog. I won't make any bold proclamations, but the plan is to get back to posting regularly, with a high priority being to wrap up my 10 Favorite Fishing Destinations list. I left that hanging with only a few to go.

To get something going, though, I'll just mention my most recent fishing trip, which was a little more than a week ago (too long, I know).  I spent a recent morning fishing one of our local delayed harvest streams and caught and released quite a few rainbows and browns. DH waters in Georgia and the Carolinas provide some fun and easy trout opportunities through the cool months and are always great for photo work for my job.

I also made a lakeside stop the same day and made a few hopeful casts. I didn't have high expectations, though, and that part of the day was more for the sake of getting some lure shots I needed. 

I'm not sure what's next on the agenda, fishing-wise, but I'll probably visit a few other recent outings as I seek to get back into a blogging groove.

Delayed Harvest Troutfest

Nathaniel, Asher and I had a big time catching trout in the North Carolina mountains last week. With photos being our main objective, we went for easy pickings, hitting Delayed Harvest waters on the Nantahala and Tuckasegee rivers and Big Snowbird Creek. All had gotten an initial spring stocking, so the trout were plenty plentiful, with a few large fish in the mix.

We experienced weather ranging from ice in line guides and snow falling to sunshine and high 50s, and generally enjoyed just exploring the areas. Adding intrigue, the three stream stretches we fished are all quite different from one another in character.

North Carolina's DH waters are open only to catch-and-release fishing with single-hook artificial lures from Oct. 1 until the first Saturday in June. For folks who enjoy fishing with artificial lures and don't mind putting them back, waters managed this way in several Southern states offer great trout-catching opportunities. Fly-fishermen make the most use of these waters, but spin-fishing is completely fine, as long as each lure in your possession is equipped with only a single hook, and no soft plastics have any scent or flavor.

My boys and I do our trout fishing mostly with hard baits, especially Rebel Crawfish and Tracdown Minnows, sometimes mixing in some small jigs or spoons when the fish want something different. Rebel Crawfish were easily our top producers last week. The most productive specific Rebel Craw model was a Deep Teeny Wee Craw, although Asher got on the big fish really well with a Middle Wee Crawfish one day.

One thing worth noting about DH waters. Because they are so productive, they are also extremely popular. If you decide to visit, do so on a weekday, if possible, and arrive early. By midday during the spring, accessible spots tend to fill up and the fish get much more wary.

Spring Springing

Flowers pictured on a fishing blog mean exactly what you might guess: I haven't been fishing enough. The blooms that are getting ever more plentiful and varied in my yard also remind me that spring is coming on quickly and that fish of various kinds should be moving shallower and feeding readily.

I do plan to fish more soon. Nathaniel, Asher and I are headed for higher hills later this week to chase some North Carolina trout in Delayed Harvest waters. The DH streams, which are open only to catch-and-release fishing with single-hook artificial lures this time of year, always get a fresh stocking the first week of March, so there should be plenty of trout to try to fool. We'll likely hit a few different streams while we're in the area.

We also plan to do a little bit of stream fishing in the riverine upper ends of mountain lakes, just to see if anything is running the rivers. We probably won't spend a huge amount of time doing that, but maybe we can find a f couple of walleyes or white bass up the rivers. Of course, if some fish do cooperate, we might just stick around to more.

I'll let you know what we find!

Fishless Week One

I was tempted to sneak out on New Year's morning to visit our nearest Delayed Harvest trout stream, just to see if I could coax a trout into biting. However, the new year brought the start of a mighty cold snap (here and almost everywhere, it seems). With a morning low in the teens on Jan. 1, such an outing truly would have been only for the novelty of a quick first catch, and I wasn't really convinced the fish would want to bite.

So I stayed home, and such has been the basic story for the entire first week of the 2018. We've had temperatures as low as 9 degrees, which is getting down there pretty good for Georgia, and it has only been creeping above freezing for a few hours at a time most days. It's 15 degrees right now. Consequently, it has seemed like a good week to work in the computer.

Thankfully, the current nationwide cold snap seems to be nearing its end. Plus, my plans for next week look like they should include some time on the water. I'm Arkansas-bound and have assorted fishing gear packed. The main purpose for my travel is to visit my company's main office in Fort Smith, but the plan as of now is to combine my travels with a content-collection outing (which means fishing). Basically, when my office visit is done, I'll start fishing my way home. No specific plans, but plenty of ideas, so I have stuff for various kinds of fishing crammed into my car and I'll most likely tote the kayak.

So my hope is definitely that by the end of week two, I'll no longer be fishless in 2018!

Nantahala Play Day

It had been far too long since Nathanial, Asher and I had spent a full day together trout fishing, so our recent day of work and play on North Carolina's Nantahala River was extra fun. We left home dark and early, got to the river just about the time daylight was finding the gorge, and spent the day hopping from spot to spot to catch fish and take photos. Photos were the work objective, so we each kept a camera handy all the time.

We caught a bunch, and all three of us got a slam of rainbows, browns and brook trout during the day. Beyond the catching, it was just a fun day spent together by the river.

The catch-and-release season on North Carolina's delayed-harvest streams just opened a couple of weeks ago. What that means is that these stream sections are well stocked and the trout haven't gotten too educated. Fooling fish isn't an amazing accomplishment, but it's a barrel of fun. We like the Nantahala a lot because it's a beautiful stretch of river with a lot of variety in types of water, and it's just big enough that at any given pull-off, it is practical for two or three people to spread out a bit or even to fish side-by-side. It's also nice because a road parallels the river, so you can fish an area for a while and then move to another pull-off.

We're far from alone in liking the Nantahala, and it can get kind of crowded. However, the many pull-offs and the configuration of the river make it pretty easy to find a spot where you aren't fishing in a crowd. Arriving early also helps. We had the river to ourselves when we arrived, and we got to hit a few spots first. Fishing on a weekday helps a little. Maybe the best thing that can happen for the sake of less company is to have horrible weather (not the case last week), and in truth, wet, nasty days sometimes offer the best fishing action.

Sun Shining this Morning

The rain began a little after 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24. I remember because Asher and I were at the Little League fields, anticipating his 7:15 game and hoping he'd get to play. It started as a drizzle about the time the early game started and got gradually heavier as that one progressed. By 7:00, it was apparent that there would be no 7:15 game (first of five consecutive rainouts).

The rain ended with a drizzle this morning, and the sun is shining beautifully now. It didn't rain constantly all 10 days, but it fell the better part of most of them, with some seriously heavy rain in the mix. It began with the edge of a low-pressure system over the Atlantic and another that dragged moisture out of the Gulf of Mexico. A cold front crashed into that low just before the outer edge of the hurricane hit. Finally, high pressure has taken charge.

I like rain. I like rain a lot, in fact. I can't deny, though, that a week and a half of rain got a little wearisome, and it kept us from getting out and playing as much as we prefer. Early rain and plentiful dark skies made me excited about prospects of good brown trout fishing. Time didn't line up during that window, though, and next thing I knew it, streams were blown out. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Division even delayed stocking Delayed Harvest streams so that the newly stocked trout wouldn't all get washed downstream.

All that rain to kick off autumn is actually really good for our waterways, and I'm glad for it now that it is gone. It provides a nice charge for trout streams, which can run mighty low this time of year, and for the reservoirs they eventually feed.

Now I just need to find a fresh window to get out there and go fishing!

Welcome Delay

I'm no more fond of delays than the next guy, but when you're talking about delaying the harvest of trout for half a year, I'm all in favor. The catch-and-release season on North Carolina's 30-plus delayed harvest trout streams opens this morning. In Georgia and South Carolina, the delayed-harvest opportunity begins next month. These waters, which are ever expanding in number, provide an outstanding cool-season opportunity for anglers who don't mind releasing their fish and fishing only single-hook artificial lures.

I'm a big fan of the delayed harvest concept because it makes great use of resources. Most waters that are managed this way offer outstanding cool-season trout habitat, but conditions deteriorate dramatically when the whether warms during the summer. Most cannot hold high densities of trout through the warm months, so it is only because of the harvest season that fisheries crews can stock these waters so heavily for the catch-and-release season. Two distinctive user groups of trout fishermen are very well served on waters that mostly received only early-season stockings or very light summer stockings prior to the development of this program.

Before you hop in the in the car too quickly, do check the stocking schedule, which is posted on the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission's website. Initial stockings are staggered over the first week of October, and it would be sort of sad to visit a delayed harvest stream for the first time any given year, with naturally high expectations, the day before they stock the fish!

I haven't made any specific plans yet, but you can trust that I'll have the car pointed toward North Carolina soon!

Day of Almost Trout

Rarely have I ever caught fewer fish for the amount of activity seen than was the case yesterday. The trout are definitely plentiful in the Nantahala River right now (as they will be until the first Saturday in June, when the catch-and-release season ends), and they were chasing, swiping at and even hitting the baits that Asher and I was throwing all afternoon. The hits were mostly slaps, though, and we missed some fish that hit more decisively.

We didn't get skunked. We caught a handful of trout including at least one representative of all three species. It was just far less than it seemed like should have been the case.

I've seen the same thing occur before (although maybe not quite to the same extent) late in the season. Some of those fish have been caught and released for several months now, and even the newcomers, from the early May stocking, have seen lots of anglers offerings every day since they day they hit the river. That section of the Nantahala gets exceptionally popular during May. At the same time, more insects are hatching, so it can be a better time for a well-fished dry/dropper combo or dry midge on a fly rod than the spin-fishing offerings that I most commonly throw.

Despite no big catch, Asher and I had a big time stomping around in the creek. We arrived at the same time as a big summer rainstorm, but fortunately it didn't last long, and the day turned out to be beautiful. I also consider each day we spend traveling to a stream and fishing good training for the #RebelTroutTrek, which is now less than two months away. In much the same fashion as we often will be traveling this summer, we drove four hours, round-trip, to fish about six hours yesterday.

Year-Round Georgia Trout

The Georgia Wildlife Resources Division announced recently that when 1600 miles of "seasonal" trout streams opened for the year last month they opened permanently. The annual seasonal closure has officially been removed from the law.

Georgia has always had enough waters open year-round that I haven't lacked opportunity to chase trout. In fact, between delayed harvest waters and late fall and early spring opportunities on a few wild trout streams that have always been open year-round, the cool months are probably my favorite months. I'm thankful for the change, though, because there are a lot of smaller wild trout streams that I at times I have wished I could visit during the cool months and could not because they were closed.

From my understanding, the need for a seasonal closure has been question by anglers for several years as fall/winter/spring trout fishing has grown in popularity, so the Georgia WRD began really looking at potential impacts and gauging angler preferences. The final verdict was that there was not biological need to close streams seasonally and that it made more sense to open more opportunities.

One thing I have not heard is whether streams that are fully hatchery supported and that were previously closed seasonally will now be stocked year-round. This obviously would require either far more trout to be produced or fewer fish to be stocked at other times. It could be that some streams will be technically open to fishing but not realistic angling destinations some of the year. Of course, the same is already true about waters that get to warm or too low for trout stocking during late summer.

I wonder if anglers who have a longstanding "opening weekend" tradition will still plan a late April trip to the same stream every year?

Time will tell how such things are carried out. For now, I'm simply thankful for fisheries managers who continue to look for ways to provide the best opportunities for Georgia anglers.

Christmas Stockings

Trout being stocked into the Chattahoochee River, just in time
for Christmas vacation. Photo courtesy of the Georgia Wildlife
Resources Division.

Some call 'em stocking elves, the hatchery workers and volunteers who team up to spread Christmas cheer in the form of trout. Whatever you want to call 'em, they've been busy this week, stocking plenty of trout in various spots along Georgia's Chattahoochee River below Buford Dam and most likely in some other year-round trout waters, so folks can enjoy good trout fishing during the Christmas break.

Untimely rain may add a little chocolate to the river for a few days and could make both access and fish catching somewhat challenging. It'll settle though. Always does. And when it does, those freshly stocked trout will be there waiting and ready to eat.

Trout can be harvested through most of the Buford tailwater. Three miles of river, through Marietta, fall under delayed harvest regulations, which means that all fishing this time of year must be done with single-hook artificial lures, and the trout all must be released.  For obvious reasons, the fishing tends to stay really good throughout the "delay" period in those waters. In fact, I may need to slip down there some time very soon. I haven't fished the 'Hooch DH yet this winter, and it seems to be calling my name, even as I write this. Maybe I'll see you there.

To learn much more about trout fishing in Georgia, visit the trout page on the Wildlife Resources Division website.

Trout Itch Worse

Big Snowbird Creek, near Robbinsville, N.C.

You know how when you scratch an itch it only gets itchier? Of course you do. Well. It would seem an itch to fish for trout is much the same way.

Last week's trip to western North Carolina included three marvelous days on the Nantahala River and Big Snowbird Creek. With the weather cooling a bit, leaves changing and North Carolina's delayed harvest season opening, I had been itching to get in a stream and to catch some trout. Those waters were soothing, while I was standing in them. However, the itch has been worse than ever this week as I've been sitting at the computer, writing fish stories, and I keep finding myself wading up stream in daydreams. Some streams are nearby and very familiar. Others are legendary waters much farther from home that I've never seen with my own eyes.

At the risk of making things even worse, I really need to get back in a stream next week, if not this weekend!

Ugly Runners Ready

Ugly Runners. I guess that's what you'd call 'em. Ugly Bugs tied on Road Runner heads. Whatever you want to call them, I have several tied and ready put to the test next week at North Carolina's Nantahala River, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the trout think. I have a few other ideas spinning in my head as well and am likewise eager to test those ideas. I'll tell more if they work!

With the delayed harvest season having just opened, there should be plenty of trout in the river. I just have to convince them that they want to eat.

Better Bring the Gloves (or Stay Home)

Western North Carolina forecast calls for an overnight low in the bottom of the 20s or upper teens(possible record low for the date), ushered in by a brisk north wind. Chilly for standing knee deep in a mountain river, but I figure that's why we have quality cold-weather gear. I know Nathaniel can handle the cold because he spent a late November day out there with me five years ago, when it was 17 degrees at starting time, and he was only 10 years old at the time. And then there was the ice trout excursion in Colorado when the huge cold front pushed through!

I'm admittedly hopeful that today's forecast of afternoon rain and snow showers, followed by hard cold, will lessen the number of other folks standing in the creek. I don't really mind other folks, and I know they have every bit as much right to be in the stream as I do. Still, I can't deny that I prefer less company when I'm trout fishing.

Plans are to spend some time fishing the Nantahala River (which, of course, is a highly popular stream this time of year and doesn't lend itself to much solitude). We also plan to explore a section of Big Snowbird Creek that was just added to the Delayed Harvest program this year. I'm eager to visit Big Snowbird, which is located just outside of Robbinsville in Graham County.

All that said, we may not go at all. I'm still watching the ever-evolving forecast. I truly don't mind the cold, but I don't want to drive two hours to spend half of tomorrow sitting in a motel room, waiting for ice to melt on the driveway so I can fish a few hours.

Trout Getting Better Educated

Only a few days into the catch-and-release season on a Delayed Harvest stream near home, the fish are already far better educated than the afternoon after I helped stock them. The stream isn't very large, and it's pretty popular, so I'm guessing most runs had a lot of fishermen wading through them over the weekend, and more than a few fish were caught and released a time or two. The runs are still full of fish, and you certainly can still coax them into biting. You just have to work for them a little more.

Interestingly, today the fish clearly favored a little larger jig than the tiny ones I normally throw in small trout streams. I don't know if the bigger head got the down to them more effectively, it less looked less like the flies they have seen a lot of in that stream, or maybe it matched some natural forage, but the preference seemed pretty evident. I may try the same stream again on Friday, so we'll see if the same thing holds true.

Nathaniel and I caught all three species that get stocked in today's outing. We also explored more of the stream than I'd seen before, which was fun. The lower end gets less fish because of stocking practicalities, but it's wilder than the upper part and really pretty.

The only bad part about today's outing was that I broke one of my favorite rods -- one that I very often reach for despite a missing first guide and a stripped reel seat that had been fixed with tape. I was just one of those rods that felt good in my hands and that I couldn't not grab when I was going to be fishing a small stream for trout or casting little lures for bluegill. And I wish I could blame a big fish or maybe an unfortunate fall as I tried to get to some difficult spot. Nope. Stubbed it on the ground in a field at the end of the day because I was looking at my phone instead of watching where I was walking.

Teriffic Trout Time on the Tuckasegee

Guide Alex Bell hooked up with a Tuckasegee River trout.

The Tuckasegee River just got a seasonal kick-start -- a kick-start to the tune of 9,800 rainbow, brown and brook trout stocked into roughly four miles of river, and early next month, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission will add 9,800 more trout to the same section. Making a good thing even better, most of those fish will remain there for the catching throughout the winter, because this section of river is open only to catch-and-release fishing right now.

Four miles of the Tuckasegee, near Dillsboro, N.C., are part of North Carolina's extremely popular Delayed Harvest trout program. DH waters get heavy stocking every fall and spring, and only catch-and-release fishing with single-hook artificial lures is permitted from Oct. 1 through the first Saturday in June. For anglers who don't mind using single-hook artificials and putting back the fish they catch, the cool-weather fishing tends to be good on all of these streams.

The Tuck is one of my personal favorites of the DH streams because it is a large trout stream that offers quite bit of room to fish for casting and allows for a variety of approaches. It's also at my end of the mountains, so to speak, and is much more practical to visit than several other DH streams. Of course, in November, Georgia's DH waters will be freshly stocked and under similar regulations, creating other opportunities closer to home. That's a different story, though.

Fly-fishing is by far the most popular way to fish most DH waters -- including the Tuckasegee --  and can be fun and very effective. In fact, this river has good shoal habitat and is fairly fertile and supports more hatches than most Appalachian trout rivers. I tend to spend more of my trout time with a spinning rod in hand, fishing a marabou Road Runner, soft-plastic offering (scentless) or a crankbait or jerkbait rigged with a single hook.

The Tuckasegee River also is an important part of the Western North Carolina Fly-Fishing Trail, which highlights 15 fine trout destinations through a cool website the offers great information and opportunities to interact. If you've not yet checked out the trail website, it's warrants a look and will likely give you ideas about some new streams to try.

A final cool thing aspect of the Tuckasegee, which I only recently learned about, is that much of the DH section falls under the special designation of Mountain Heritage Trout Waters.  This cooperative effort between the NCWRC and local governments promotes trout fishing as a tourism activity in and around cooperating cities that provide public access by allowing residents or non resident to fish with only a $5 3-day Mountain Heritage Trout Waters License. (A regular NC fishing license and trout permit also work.) These waters have distinctive boundaries that are not the same as the DH boundaries and licenses are not available through regular license outlets, so visit the NCWRC's Mountain Heritage Trout Waters page to learn details.

To learn about guided trips on the Tuckasegee, visit www.abfish.org.

Destination Smokies

This time tomorrow, I'll be knee deep in the Nantahala River, hopefully releasing yet another trout. We'll arrive early in the afternoon, and hopefully the catching will commence in a hurry. The highly familiar four miles of delayed harvest waters on the Nantahala tend to produce very well during April. High numbers of rainbows, brook trout and browns get stocked in these waters, and all fishing is catch-and-release with single-hook artificial lures this time of year.

I typically visit the Nantahala a couple of times during the "delay" period, and I've been doing so for close to 20 years. Therefore it's runs and pools and the behavior of its trout have gotten fairly familiar. Not quite predictable. They still baffle me sometimes. Familar, though. It's a favored photo destination because it's easy to get in and out of the river in a lot of places and the habitat ranges from gentle riffles to long runs to crashing rapids with big plunge pools beneath them.

We'll also spend a day fishing on Fontana Lake on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and will be staying at Fontana Village Resort. I've fished Fontana a handful of times over the years, but it has been several years, so I'm really looking forward to spending time there. I'm not sure yet whether we'll be fishing for smallmouths, walleyes or something else, but on a lake as pretty as Fontana, there really aren't any bad options.

On Thursday we'll hit the river again before starting toward home. At least that's the plan right now. The weatherman says there's a 90 percent chance of rain on Thursday, so I suppose plans will depend on what time the rain sets in (if at all) and how heavy it is. Either way, we'll fish a day on the river and a day on the lake, so keep an eye out for reports.

Great Time to Catch Georgia Trout

If you don't mind releasing the fish you catch and being restricted to using single-hook artificial lures, some of the best opportunities of the year to catch trout in Georgia begin tomorrow. Nov. 1 is the official opening day for Georgia's five delayed harvest streams, and all five streams are sure to be well stocked with trout (including a few big ones). From tomorrow morning through mid-May, no harvest will be permitted and only single-hook artificial lures may be used or possessed, but the Georgia WRD will continue stocking trout from time to time throughout the season.

All five streams in the program offer excellent trout habitat during the cool season and are therefore perfect for DH designation. Adding interest, they vary dramatically in character and range from Chattahoochee, which is a big urban tailwater, to Smith Creek, which is a fairly small mountain creek. Two of the stream sections, along the Chattooga and Amicalola rivers, offer only walking access to most of their combined 6 miles.

November is prime time to hit DH waters because temperatures tend to be mild, the rivers are beautiful, and the fish are freshly stocked and typically a little less educated than they will be later in the DH season. Don't  expect to have any of these waters to yourself, though. Folks have figured out that they offer very good opportunities to catch trout and they are therefore quite popular.

Delayed Harvest Streams Now Open

North Carolina's Delayed Harvest waters create a fine opportunity for catch-and-release trout fishing throughout the cool months. Photo by Nathaniel Samsel.

With the beginning of October at the beginning of this week came one more new beginning -- and one that is noteworthy for Southern trout fishermen. October 1 marked the beginning of another Delayed Harvest trout season on several streams in western North Carolina. From Oct. 1 through the first Saturday in June, only single-hook artificial lures may be used or possessed on these waters, and all trout caught must be immediately released. Throughout the "delay" season, the DH waters stay heavily stocked with rainbows, browns and brook trout.

North Carolina's DH program, which began on four streams in the early 1990s, makes great use of streams that offer fine trout  habitat during the cool months but suffer from summer stress. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission loads these waters with trout during the time when the habitat is best, and then allows a harvest to begin about the time the habitat quality would begin to diminish in early June. Because of its extreme popularity, the DH program has expanded dramatically and now includes 29 waterways in 16 North Carolina counties and is also used in several surrounding states, including my home state of Georgia. North Carlina 's list of DH waters includes four new stream sections this season.

Delayed Harvest waters range from creeks you could hop across to fairly large mountain rivers and vary from from tumbling and rugged to nearly pancake flat. Some have good roadside access; others require more walking. All get stocked with roughly the same density of trout based on their normal total volume, with a mix of 40 percent rainbows, 40 percent brook trout and 20 percent brown trout. And while fish average a little less than a foot in length, the NCWRC always includes some "quality fish" as a bonus to keep things extra interesting for fishermen.

I typically make at least a few trips to North Carolina's Delayed Harvest waters during the catch-and-release season, and while no plans have been set in stone, I certainly hope that this season will be no different.

Harvest Critical Part of Delayed Harvest

This morning brought an end to my favorite part of North Carolina's delayed harvest trout fishing season, and I probably won't return to favored destinations such as the DH sections of the Nantahala or Tuckasegee River until after October 1, when they revert to release regulations. Likewise, I probably won't return to to Georgia's DH waters until November.

From fall through early summer, select waters in both states are open only to catch-and-release fishing with single-hook artificial lures. On May 15 in Georgia and the first Saturday in June (today) in North Carolina, the same streams revert to general regulations, with a harvest of trout and the use of natural bait both permitted.

I prefer the "delay" period because I'm not a big fan of trout as food fish, I like fishing with artificial lures, and I enjoy the high densities of fish found in these waters during the time when only catch-and-release fishing is permitted. I'm also a fairly mobile angler. Given the choice, therefore, I'd rather not fish waters where anglers are camped out on every big hole, which happens much more frequently in heavy bait-fishing areas.

All that said, I appreciate the "harvest" season on these waters. I've heard many fellow catch-and-release anglers grumble about it, believing these waters would be even better if all the trout had to be released all the time. Beyond the fact that this would take away fine opportunities for a totally different group of fishermen, the idea that fishing would be better simply isn't true. In fact, the opposite is true.

Most waters chosen for delayed harvest designation offer good to outstanding cool-season habitat and can hold high numbers of trout from fall through spring. However, most also run low and get too warm to hold many trout during the summer. Prior to the development of the delayed harvest management concept, most were marginal put-and-take waters that got stocked with low numbers of trout early in the season and maybe a few more in the fall. If these waters were managed with a year-round catch-and-release requirement, they couldn't be stocked with nearly as many fish or most (and in some cases, all) of the trout would die of natural causes during the summer.

Fisheries divisions understandably wouldn't stock high numbers of trout that they knew would not survive through the year, so instead, these would be catch-and-release trout streams with very few trout in them, even during the winter, when they were running cool and full of water, which really wouldn't be very fun!

I'm thankful for those fishermen who are fishing all 26 of North Carlina's delayed harvest streams and lakes this morning and who are excited about the beginning of the "harvest" season. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't get to catch nearly as many fish in the fall.

Final Days For Delayed Harvest

Only to days remain in the "delay" period for the 26 North Carolina streams and small lakes that are managed as Delayed Harvest waters. Only single-hook artificial lures may be used or possessed and all fish must be released on these waters through 1/2 hour after sunset on Friday, June 1. Starting Saturday morning, the same waters revert to general regulations, with natural bait and a harvest of fish both permitted.

Late May days tend to produce some of the best action of the year on these waters for anglers who enjoy catch-and-release trout fishing. Fish abundance is high, and the trout typically are aggressive. Fly fishermen do well with attractor dry fly/nymph combinations. Spin-fishermen do well with fast moving reaction baits like Rebel Teeny Wee Craws or flashy in-line spinners.

Of course if you like really fast action, want a limit fish to take home and don't mind the crowds, you'll want to be bank-side on the same streams when they open to the harvest on Saturday morning, 1/2 hour before sunrise.